This year celebrates the 25th anniversary of Marvel Knights, and Jimmy Palmiotti, Garth Ennis, and David Mack hosted a panel at Kansas City Planet Comicon talking about its ups, downs and all-arounds.
In the late 90s, Marvel wasn’t the powerhouse that it is today. No one was buying the comics, and many thought the house of ideas would be forced to shut its doors. Marvel Knights was a quick idea to move more books and avoid filing for bankruptcy.
Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada spearheaded the imprint and brought their friends along for the ride. We needed to “get the right guy[s] for the right books,” said Palmiotti. The right guys turned out to be Paul Jenkis and Jae Lee on Inhumans, Grant Morrison and Jae Lee on Fantastic Four, Christopher Priest on Black Panther, and Kevin Smith on Daredevil.
“Kevin Smith was one of the first guys to say comic books are cool,” said Palmiotti. When Kevin said it, he was on the Late Show with David Letterman. Even with his love for the medium, Kevin would often threaten to quit. Jimmy remembered many phone calls ending in screams. “Dealing with Kevin Smith was like babysitting a grown man.”
Around this time, David Mack’s Kabuki caught Jimmy’s attention. After bringing it to Quesada, they wanted Mack to do a brand new character, and Echo was born.
“Marvel meetings were like parties,” said Mack. They’d invite indie creators from other publishers, have drinks, and try to bring the industry together.
As Mack was brought into the Marvel Knights fold, he had worries people wouldn’t like his art. However, once he started painting over Quesada’s linework and Palmiotti’s inks, he defined the age stylistically.
They didn’t have emails, so they had to Fed-Ex the art back and forth. Mack would do layouts. Quesada would pencil them. Palmiotti would ink the pages, and then they’d go back to Mack to paint.
Once Mack got comfortable, he snuck a copy of Brian Michael Bendis’ Torso into a Fed-Ex package addressed to Quesada. Quesada wasn’t a fan of Bendis’ art, but he did like the writing. Mack agreed to do interior work in exchange for bringing Bendis on as a writer, which led to the iconic Daredevil run with Alex Maleev.
“When creators are happy, they do better work,” explained Palmiotti. The Marvel Knights creatives were paid a little extra, and both Palmiotti and Quesada fought with editors to get their vision out to the public. Oftentimes, they’d sneakily bypass editorial, send the pages to print, and apologize for it later.
Palmiotti wanted Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon on Punisher but had to wait for their work at DC Comics to end. During the 2nd year of Marvel Knights, Garth was able to take over Castle, readying Frank for a new audience. The current Punisher comics were more about killing and less about Frank. Garth and Steve were able to change that.
Sometimes, the right guys didn’t have the right work ethics and played fast and loose with deadlines. Steve Dillon would often fall behind on pages only to produce them when Palmiotti offered to pick up the bar tab. Jae Lee would ignore phone calls, and Palmiotti responded by calling Lee’s mother, showing up at their house, and banging on the front door.
“Corralling these guys is exhausting,” said Palmiotti. It was a lot of work editing the books and sneakily bypassing editorial. “They put their foot down, but we didn’t listen.”
Editors had too much power. Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada took the power back and gave it to the creators. “Marvel editorial did not like us,” Palmiotti proudly stated. The powers that be didn’t like how they brought in big screen TVs, couches, and comfortable chairs into the office. They even put chairs on the roof because why not?
All of this evolved into the Marvel Max line, Ennis explained. His Punisher run was able to take a much more violent and adult turn, which excited fans.
“It was a ripple effect,” said Mack, but not all the ripples in this creative pond expanded with positivity.
Palmiotti grew dispirited due to his treatment. “No one ever said thank you.” They were never recognized in the credits of films using their characters, stories, and dialog. Some even used the Marvel Knights logo while ignoring the original creators. Under a heartbreaking weight, Palmiotti uttered, “I felt like I was being erased.”
“It’s getting better,” admitted Palmiotti. There’s a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. It was because of their vocalized frustrations that new MCU entities showcase the acknowledgements within their credits.
“It’s corporate. We know what corporations are like. And,” Palmiotti professed with a sly, Brooklyn grin, “that’s why I do Kickstarters.”
I also got to interview Jimmy Palmiotti and David Mack. Here are the links to those videos:
Awesome recap! Did not know the MK line had so many challenges